White Collar Criminals Elude Collectors

by Madeleine Baran

Mar. 7, 2005 –
White-collar criminals often go to great lengths to avoid paying court-ordered restitution, according to a study released Thursday by the General Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO studied five unidentified federal cases and found that only $40 million of the $568 million executives and business owners were ordered to pay to investors and shareholders was ever collected.

The convicted criminals used a variety of schemes to avoid payment, including giving a company to a minor child and then joining the company as a salaried employee, and deeding a home to a relative and then renting it back.

A broader GAO study, released last year, found that uncollected fines and restitution in federal criminal cases more than quadrupled, from $6 billion in September 1996 to about $25 billion by September 2002.